Gillon told Playbook via a written statement “Without the EU funding it would not have been possible to arrive at this discovery. I’m grateful that the European Research Council invested in our idea.”

The solar system in question has been labeled TRAPPIST-1 (after the monks who make beer) and the project that found it is called SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) after the Belgian sweet treat.